“Our latest stock assessment found that the blacknose shark is depleted and the rate of fishing, both directed and incidental, is unsustainable,” said Jim Balsiger, acting NOAA assistant administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “Blacknose sharks are vulnerable because they bear few young. The proposed measures will help rebuild the species, an important part of the ecosystem in the south Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.”
The stock assessment determined that reducing the annual mortality of blacknose sharks by approximately 78 percent across all fisheries could result in rebuilding by 2027. To rebuild the blacknose shark population—named for the dusky blotch on the tip of their noses—NOAA proposes creating a separate blacknose shark quota. Until now, landings of blacknose sharks have been counted against the small coastal shark complex quota. The proposed annual quota would be 6,065 blacknose sharks, or 14.9 metric tons dressed weight (shark weight without head, guts and fins). An average of 27,484 blacknose sharks, or 62 metric tons dressed weight, were landed each year from 1999-2005. The separate quota is needed because this species is the only small coastal shark that has been determined to be fished at an unsustainable rate and have a depleted population.
